Daily Inspiration: Meet Ari Owenby

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ari Owenby.

Hi Ari, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was twelve when I first got my hands on my parents’ old digital camera that was gathering dust in a cabinet. I was instantly hooked, and my early subjects were predictable: the pets, the sky, the pets again. As the years went on and I upgraded to better gear, my favorite subject never changed. It was always the pets.

In 2022, my husband and I decided life had gotten a little too quiet, so we adopted a dog. We found our way to Angels Among Us Pet Rescue here in Atlanta, and that’s where we met Peanut: a scrappy little chihuahua with a dusting of white already on her face. She was an older girl, which meant I couldn’t help but think ahead. Specifically, I was thinking about the day she wouldn’t be here anymore. And one of the things I knew I’d want most was photos of her.

As I started researching local photographers, something clicked: I wasn’t alone. Tons of people want to memorialize their pets near the end of their lives. Enough people that there’s even a worldwide database for it called The Tilly Project. I also learned that professional pet photography is expensive, and rightly so. It’s an art form, and artists deserve to be paid for their craft. But I also knew those prices weren’t attainable for everyone, including me. And that’s when I realized what I wanted to do.

That’s where the name comes from. My photography is called Wink & Wag, and it honors my two rescues, which are my first dogs in adulthood, and the reason I do any of this. Peanut is the Wag: despite hundreds of pages of medical notes, she’s a happy girl who never stops wagging her tail. Odin is the Wink: he lost an eye to what we assume was a dog attack, but he’s the friendliest little chihuahua mix you’d ever meet, and with one eye down, it looks like he’s always winking at you. They both came from the same rescue, and they’re the first dogs I’ve been fully responsible for in every sense of the word. They’ll pave the way for so many dogs to come, and it’s an honor to immortalize them in the name of my work. Every client I take on, none of it would have happened without them.

So now I offer free end-of-life pet photography for anyone local to me, or anyone willing to make the drive. I’m not a professional photographer. I’ve never had formal training or gone to school for this. I’m just a lady with a passion, a dream, and a goal: to help people like me memorialize their best friend before they’re gone.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Honestly? It’s been a learning curve, and I think that’s the most honest way to put it.

When I was in college, I had a course that required me to build my own website as a working portfolio of my writing. After graduation, that site collected digital dust while I sat in a bit of a slump. When I realized there was a need for end-of-life pet photography, I rebranded that old site to fit the new endeavor, which was a start, but it came with its own set of challenges.

For one, my photography is called Wink & Wag. Which is a great name, until you realize that sites listing photographers in alphabetical order put me right at the bottom of every single list. W is a tough place to live. As a result, I don’t have a long line of people knocking on my door and I’m genuinely hard to find, so that’s a mountain I’m still climbing.

And when people do reach out, I often don’t hear back from them. My best guess? In this day and age, people assume free pet photography must be a scam. And honestly, I get it, how often do you come across a genuinely free service? But I’ve never intended to charge for this. The passion is what drives me, and I worry that turning it into a business would risk turning that passion into just another line item. I never want that. I want to keep providing an accessible service to pet owners who need it.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
At my core, I love taking photos of pets, and I love it even more when I’m memorializing one. Giving someone one last tangible thing to hold onto means the world to me.

I’ll be honest: this is a difficult job. I sit with pet owners as they tell me about the amazing life their pet has had, while I’m actively loving on that pet myself. In those moments, I feel a small fraction of their anticipatory grief and it stays with me. Every single client I’ve photographed stays with me.

The emails are the hardest in the best way. Hearing that a pet passed shortly after our session. Reading that the photos are helping with the grief. Or learning that a client was able to put more money toward keeping their pet alive instead of paying me for photos (that one gets me every time). I’m beyond happy that I’m able to do this for people, and that I receive so much gratitude in return.

What sets me apart is probably this: my sessions are never timed. I always try to schedule clients on Saturdays so we can take as much time as we need. Some sessions have wrapped up in fifteen minutes; others have stretched to an hour and a half. Whatever it takes, I’ll do it because the goal is never speed. The goal is making sure my client walks away with good, lasting photos of their best friend.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I’ve called metro Atlanta home since 2015, and it’s a city I genuinely love. It’s a place of creativity, unapologetic self-expression, and a never-ending list of things to do. Atlanta is known as the “city in a forest” and it earns that name. We have a massive amount of trees here, which really sets the city apart. You can dive deep into the urban core for that lively city vibe, or drive just a few minutes out to one of the many forested hiking trails.

As a hobbyist photographer, that range is a gift. There’s an endless supply of locations to fit every personality and lifestyle which, for someone who shoots pets, means I never run out of backdrops.

As for what I like least? The traffic is the obvious answer, but for me it’s the weather. You’ll check the forecast, see no chance of rain, and sure enough a random downpour hits on a shoot day, and everything has to be rescheduled. It’s the one thing I can’t plan around. That said, the longer I live here, the more manageable it becomes. It’s a trade-off I’m happy to make for a city this full of life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://winkandwagphotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wink.and.wag
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577268932761